Mr. Snagsby obliges Mr. Tulkinghorn and repeats Jo's account concerning the manner in which he--Jo--had come in possession of two sovereigns. To his shock, upon concluding Jo's account for the second time, Mr. Snagsby realizes that Mr. Tulkinghorn isn't his--Mr. Snagsby's--sole auditor. There is someone else in the room though Mr. Sangsby would swear on his mother's grave that no one had physically entered the room where he and Mr. Tulkinghorn are having a private conference.
The intruder is Detective Bucket who works on behalf of Mr. Tulkinghorn. Apparently, it was Detective Bucket who had commissioned the local constable to harry and harrass the boy Jo to move away as far as he can from where he was wont to sweep the streets for loose change. With the new revelation concerning the source of Jo's two soverigns, Mr. Tulkinghorn would now have Detective Bucket find and fetch the boy Jo with Mr. Snagsby's help. Mr. Snagsby consents to help when Detective Bucket gives his assurance that no harm will befall the boy.
Subsequently, Detective Bucket and Mr. Snagsby go to London's ghetto Tom-all-Alone's. There they are met by a police officer named Darby who helps Bucket and Snagsby negotiate the narrow streets and alleyways. The ghetto dwellers are ignorant of anyone named Jo, but their description of a boy name Toughy fits the bill.
Thus the trio find themselves in the company of two unemployed bricklayers who are asleep and their wives who are up caring nor a newly born baby. Apparently, Toughy, who has gone on an errand, is due back shortly. While waiting, Bucket learns that Jenny, who is holding the baby, has lost a child of her own. When Jenny suggests that her baby is better off dead on accoount of her circumstances, Bucket chides her, making her retract her statement. Presently Toughy, who is indeed Jo, arrives with medicine for one of the women.
At first, Jo, thinking that the authorities have come to harry and harrass him again, recoils from the newly arrived guests. He is assured, however, that no harm will befall him, and that they have only come to seek his assistance on a pressing matter for which he will be compensated. Thus assured, Jo suffers to be led to Mr. Tulkinghorn's residence at Lincoln's Inn Fields.
The presence of Madamoiselle Hortense, a French maid who is out of favor with Lady Dedlock, at Mr. Tulkinghorn's residence, causes Jo to shout and gesticulate. He claims the French maid was the woman from whom he had received the two sovereigns. Howerver, when the French maid reveals her hand, Jo retracts his claim, asserting that the hand which had given him the sovereigns was a "deal whiter, a deal delicater, and deal smaller."
Subsequently, having been rewarded with five shillings, Jo is dismissed. Mr. Snagsby is dismissed as well. But before he is, Bucket reminds Sangsby that the matter is to remain strictly confidential. Snagsby promises that he will and returns to his wife who has been so worried by his absence that she has filed a report with the police claiming that he is a missing person.